


An Angel in the Lion's Den

by Sassaphrass



Category: Dominion (TV)
Genre: ALL THE SPOILERS, Archangel Angst, Gen, Michael is judging you David Whele, Spoilers 2x07
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-22
Updated: 2015-08-22
Packaged: 2018-04-16 15:38:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 712
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4630725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sassaphrass/pseuds/Sassaphrass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two things Michael mildly enjoys are lions, and aggravating David Whele. </p><p>While indulging in both, he finds himself thinking of past failures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	An Angel in the Lion's Den

 

Michael is standing by the window that looks down into the lion pit when David Whele comes in.

 

“How did you get in here?!” he demands in surprise. For a moment Michael imagines the man's face is clear of his carefully crafted persona and he is genuinely angry and genuinely surprised.

 

Michael doesn't bother answering. Surely, it should be obvious- who would dare to stop him?

 

“You've made him a man-eater. Pity.” he remarks looking down as the lion feasts.

 

“Do I sense disapproval, Archangel?” Ah...there it is. David Wheele's public face. His contempt for Michael, for needing him in the first and not exiling him when he had served his purpose.

 

“It's not my place to approve or disapprove. Not in matters like this.”

 

“Yes.” David walks up next to him. Smug. He enjoys believing that he has some sort of power over Michael, that because Michael is serving this city he is somehow subservient to him.

 

He's not entirely wrong.

 

“So, why are you here than?” he asks.

 

Michael doesn't look at him. He keeps his gaze neutral and watches the lion.

 

“Because, I rather like lions.” he replies.

 

David fakes a laugh.

 

“Fed a few men to them yourself, huh?” David sounds positively gleeful at the idea.

 

“No.” Solomon had once kept them as pets. Michael had liked Solomon, though Gabriel had haunted the temple and the palace at Jerusalem, a specter of bitterness, rage and grief. “I knew tame ones, once.”

 

David looks at him in surprise. Michael has so rarely volunteered information not directly related to 8-balls and how to kill them. He knows the story of Solomon and his lions, he's trying to decide whether he believes it.

 

Michael meets his gaze for a moment and then turns to looks back at the lion who is tearing at a carcass which is only barely recognizable as having once been human.

 

“What good is a tame lion? The rumour that Samson feasts on the flesh of the guilty is spreading through Vega. Soon, none will dare cross me.”

 

Michael let's out a small puff of air, that's not quite as sigh. It's as close as it sometimes feels he will get to laughing in this dirty desperate city. Once again, David Wheele is not wrong.

 

But, he is right in all the most horrible ways.

 

Michael remembers a little boy with curly black hair and a sweet round face.

 

He wonders what that boy might have become. What he should have had a chance to do. What he would have done. If Michael had only been quicket.

 

The lion's face is bloody.

 

He remembers Gabriel's gentleness, his love, his rage and his grief.

 

“You are unworthy of your name, David Wheele.”

 

 

David fakes another laugh. “If there's one thing I know it's that I am more than worthy of the name Whele.”

 

Michael considers rolling his eyes. Humans can be a bit slow on the uptake. “Not that name, your given one- David. Your beloved of no one.”

 

David laughs again. This time Michael can't tell whether or not it is fake.

 

“Of course, I suppose this is the part where you tell me you knew the great King David and went for drinks and I am not worthy to even bear the echo of his name?”

 

David Wheele is an aggravating person. He's always playing to an audience, even when there's no one else in the room. Michael has never said anything like what David is describing.

 

“I didn't know King David, second king of Israel. I was referring to the boy who slew a giant with a sling and a rock. I knew _him_ , though not as well as I would have liked.”

 

Whele scoffs. “They are the same person.”

 

Michael glances at David as he turns to leave. “Were they?”

 

He strides towards the door but pauses before leaving. “Careful of that lion, David. Once they have a taste for the flesh of man they'll eat anyone.”

 

David raises his glass in acknowledgment without turning around.

 

Michael nearly bowls over young William on his way out. The boy stammers and steps aside.

 

He is in awe of archangels.

 

Michael prefers the father's contempt to the son's deference.

 

The contempt at least, seems honest.

 

**Author's Note:**

> So, the original idea for this fic ie: Michael telling David Whele he wasn't worthy of his name existed pre-2x07. And then I watched 2.07 and canon turned up the angst on the idea by about X1000. So I wrote it real quick like. 
> 
> According to what I'm sure was a *very* accurate picture book I got from the church library as a child, Solomon could talk to lions/most animals (?) and had a whole bunch that just like chilled in his palace with him. They weren't really tame, they just thought he was pretty cool and decided to hang out and scare the bejeezus out of visitors he didn't like for him. 
> 
> I don't know why but that somehow seems like the sort of thing Michael would be into.


End file.
